Icpc

As someone who's participated in ICPC (look it up), 2100 rating on codeforces, 2750 rating on leetcode. I've tried everything. I've cracked several FAANGs, and I've talked to the some of the best competitive programmers including people who only uses leetcode. I've only been problem solving for less than 2 years. Here's my honest take. 95% of the people on this subreddit are doing things wrong. Terribly wrong. Buying courses or premium, memorizing time complexities or problems, focusing on solve count. All irrelevant to real growth. I've noticed really strong people have a drive to figure things out themselves. They don't ask for solutions or instinctively try to take shortcuts. What I did to get to where I am? It's really not rocket science: 1. I solve problems every week. (Yes, not daily because all that does is speed running burnout) 2. Outside of contests, I only solve NEW random problems that are hard for me (Requires 30 minutes or more thinking) 3. I almost never read editorials unless I really need to. (You can if you're a beginner) And let me clear things from the start-- Yes, it is possible to solve interview problems fast (less than 5 minutes after seeing a brand new problem). It is not required to "memorize" anything. Problem solving is simply pattern recognition and everything can be deduced on the spot. Learning an algorithm such as Dijkstra's isn't "memorizing". You can understand it deeply and figure out the components yourself. Atcoder has similar DSA focused problems, but much much more high quality and enjoyable. CSES has even more high quality standard problems that teaches you the patterns needed to solve problems. USACO guide has high quality topic based learning and problems. These are some resources that I don't recommend: The common problem with these sheets are, by the time you've done each and every topic, you already forgot what you did. You have to solve random problems. Neetcode (hot take). Neetcode isn't a strong coder to begin with. I'm not sure how he got his fame, but from my estimate and comments himself I don't think he would be more than a 2000 rated leetcode user. Sure, if you like his explainations, go ahead, but the roadmap to me makes no sense. Having DP and greedy all the way at the bottom. None of the resources I suggested have a paid version whereas neetcode does. Striver a-z sheet or TLE eliminators or whatever ladder-- these are all borderline scams. I won't go deep but having a structured "roadmap" doesn't really mean anything. Leetcode: Lc is filled with cheaters, terrible editorials with upvote farmers, 405 connection error, low quality problems (last weekly contest Q3 and Q4 are both wrong) Lc editorials are written by anyone that wants to, sometimes low rated people so you're learning from bad people that just knows how to format words pretty.